The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1887-07-28


introdlctions and long applications, and
so many divisions to a discourse that 1t
may be said to be hytlraheaded. In other
days men got all their information from
the pulpit. There were few books and
there were no newspapers, and there was
little travel from place to place, and peo-
pie would sit and listen two and a half
hours to religious discourse, and ''sev-
enteenthIy' would find them fresh and
clipper. In those days there was enough
time for man to take an hour to warm
himself up to the subject and an hour to
cool off. But what was q necessity then
is a superfiuity now. Congregations are
full of knowledge from books, from
newspapers, from rapid and contin-
uous intercommunication, and long
disquisitions of what they know al
ready viii not be abided. If a religious
teacher cannot compress what he wishes
to say to the people in the space Of
forty-five minutes, better adjourn it to
some other day.
The trouble is we preach audiences
into a Christian frame, and then we
preach them out of it. We forget that
every auditor has so much capacity of
attention, and when that is exhausted he
is restless. That accident on the Long
Island railroad some years ago came from
the fact that the brakes We're out of
order, and when they wanted to stop the
train they could not stop, and hence the
casualty was terrific. In all religious
discourse we want locomotive power and
propulsion. We want at the same time
stout breaks to let down at the right in
stant 1t is a dismal thing after a nearer
has comprehended the whole subject to
hear a man say: "NOw to recapitulate, "
and "a few words by way Of appica-
ton, and ''Once more, " and 'finally,
and "nOw to conclude.
Paul preached until midnight, and
EltychUs got sound asleep and fell out Of
"a window and broke his neck. Some
would say: Good for him" / would
rather be sympathetic like Paul and re-
slscitate him. That accident is often
quoted now in religious circles as a warn
ing against somnolence in church. 1t is
just as much a warning to ministers
against proliXity. Eutychus was wrong
in his sonnolence, but Paul made a mis-
take when lie kept on until midnight,
He ought to have stopped at II O'Clock,
and there would have been no accident.
IF Paul might have gone on to too great
length let all those of us who are now
preaching the Gospel remember that there
is a limit to religious discourse, or ought
to be, and that in our time we have no
apostolic power of miracles.
Napoleon in an address of seven min
utes thrilled his army, and thrilled Eu-
rope. Christ s sermon on the mount. the
model sermon, was less than eighteen
minutes long at ordinary rate of delivery.
1t is not electricity scattered over the sky
that strikes, but electricity gathered into
a thunderbolt and hurled, and it is not
religious truth scattered over, spread out
over a vast reach of time. but religious
truth projected in compact form that
flashes light upon the soul and Tives its
indifference.
When the religious discourse of the
future arrives in this land and in the
Christian church. the discourse which is
to arouse the world and startle the ma
tons, and usher in the kingdom, it will
be a brief discourse. Hear it, all the0lOg-
icai students, all We Just entering upon
religious york, all We men and women
who in Sabbath schools and other de
partments are toiling for Christ and the
salvation of nnmortals. BreVityi brev-
ityi
But 1 remark also that the religious
discourse of the tsltIIre of which | speak
will be a popular discourse. There are
those in these times who speak Of popu
lar sermon as though there must be
something wrong about it. As these
i, l,C
the impression that the sermon is good
III proportion as it is stupid. Christ was
the most popniaA preacher the world ever
saw, and considering the small number
of the worlds population had the largest
audiences ever gathered. He never
; preached anywhere without making
great sensation People rushed out in
the wilderness to hear him. reckless of
! their physical necessities. So great was
! their anxiety to hear Christ that. taking
| no food with them, they would have
tainted and starved had not Christ per
formed a miracle and fed them.
Why did 50 many people take the truth
at Christ s hands2 Because they all UNI
| derstood it. He illustrated ms subject
| by a hen and her chickens, by b4silel
! measure by a handful Of salt, by a bird S
/ fight and by Ely's aroma. All the
! people knew what he meant and they
! aocked to him. md when the religious
| discourse of the future appears, it will
not l,a Priucetonian, not RocheNesiaa,
not Andoyerian, not Middletonian, but
| Ohvctic-piain, practical. unique, earn
| est, comprehensive of ali the woes,
wants. sins. sorrows and necessities OF an
| auditory.
But when that exhortation or discourse
does come there will be a thousand
! cleaning scimetars TO charge on it..
| There are in so many theological Semlna-
ries professors telling young men how 10
preach, themselves not knowing how,
| and | am told that if young man in
1 some of our theological seminaries says
| anything quaint or thrilling or unique,
| faculty and students fly at him and set
him right. and straighteu him out, and
| smooth him down, and chop him off,
until he says everything just as every
body else says it.
Oh. when the future religious discourse
of ,I.a Christian church arrives, all the
churches 0, Christ in our great cities will
be thronged. The world wants spiritual
! nelp. All VINO nave bOlitti ttiti' tttttu
want comfort All know themselves Il
be mortal and 10 be immortal and they
want to hear about The great future.
tell you. my friends, if the people Of our
great cities who have had trouble only
thought they could get practical and sym
pathetic help in the Christian church,
there would not be street in New York,
or Brooklyn, or Chicago, or Charleston.
on Philadelphia, or Boston which would
be passabie on the sabbath day if there
were'a church on t; for all the people
would press to that asyiuia of mercy
that great house of comfort and co.l-Q
latiOn.
A mother with ? dead babe in her armt
came to the god Neda and asked to have
her child restored to life. The goa Ned;
said to her: You go and get q handful
of mufard seed from a house in which
A sEs